Hailed as “sensational” and for playing with “total commitment and conviction” (Seen & Heard International 2024), cellist Rainer Crosett is quickly building an international career as an artist of uncommon sensitivity and creativity. From his Wigmore Hall recital debut in 2019 as the first American cellist to win the Pierre Fournier Award, to his recent concerto debut with the Philharmonia Orchestra of London, he regularly appears as a soloist and chamber musician on many of the most renowned stages throughout Europe and North Rainer’s passion for the way music relates to other fields continues to yield boundary-breaking projects. He is co-founder of a new interdisciplinary chamber music society in Berlin, Tonhain Kollektiv, and has performed widely at festivals including Yellow Barn, Ravinia, Grachtenfestival Amsterdam, HearAndNow Festival Amsterdam, Trondheim kammermusikkfestival, Rheingau Musik Festival, Music@Menlo, Romsey Chamber Music Festival, La Jolla SummerFest, and Prussia Cove Open Chamber Music. His chamber music collaborators have included Donald and Vivian Weilerstein, Anthony Marwood, and Kim Kashkashian.

A dedicated advocate of contemporary music, Rainer has worked closely with leading composers of our time including Jörg Widmann, Chaya Czernowin, and Lei Liang, and performed with ensembles such as the Neue Vocalsolisten Stuttgart. He has also recently commissioned chamber music works from composers such as Eun Young Lee and Reinaldo Moya. A passionate educator, Rainer has given masterclasses at prominent institutions such as the Royal Academy of Music in London and UC Irvine. As guest principal cellist, he appears regularly with the Amsterdam Sinfonietta and the Oslo Philharmonic. A graduate of Harvard College magna cum laude in Philosophy, he pursued graduate studies in music at New England Conservatory, the USC Thornton School of Music, and the Universität der Künste Berlin.

Hailed by The Washington Post for his “poised and imaginative playing,” Filipino-American pianist Victor Santiago Asuncion has appeared in concert halls in Brazil, Canada, Ecuador, France, Italy, Germany, Japan, Mexico, the Philippines, Spain, Turkey and the USA, as a recitalist and concerto soloist. He played his orchestral debut at the age of 18 with the Manila Chamber Orchestra, and his New York recital debut in Carnegie’s Weill Recital Hall in 1999. In addition, he has worked with conductors including Sergio Esmilla, Enrique Batiz, Mei Ann Chen, Zeev Dorman, Arthur Weisberg, Corrick Brown, David Loebel, Leon Fleisher, Michael Stern, Jordan Tang, and Bobby McFerrin.

A chamber music enthusiast, he has performed with artists such as Lynn Harrell, Zuill Bailey, Andres Diaz, James Dunham, Antonio Meneses, Joshua Roman, Cho-Liang Lin, Giora Schmidt, the Dover, Emerson, Serafin, Sao Paulo, and Vega String Quartets. He was on the chamber music faculty of the Aspen Music Festival, and the Garth Newel Summer Music Festival. He was also the pianist for the Garth Newel Piano Quartet for three seasons. Festival appearances include the Amelia Island, Highland-Cashiers, Music in the Vineyards, and Santa Fe.